


Trips Around the Sun

by theimpossiblegeekygrrl



Category: The OA (TV)
Genre: Birthdays, Drabble, Gen, One Shot, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 13:05:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13295499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theimpossiblegeekygrrl/pseuds/theimpossiblegeekygrrl
Summary: A celebration of sadness.





	Trips Around the Sun

_You look so precious with your bloody nose..._  
-Kings of Leon-

* * *

 

Hap tried not make it a habit, though after seven years it would have been easy enough to do so.  
  
Before meeting Prairie, the birthdays of his cohort had been a meaningless detail in their file – just another number among the strings of numbers that now would fill reams of paper, if he ever printed them out. But hers was special to him, and always would be. If anything could be tattooed on his heart, it would be the string of eight numbers that represented the day he met Prairie Johnson for the first time. Though her name had changed and evolved over the years, from Nina to Prairie, and now to the new name she called herself when she thought he wasn’t listening in, this was the one thing that would never change.  
  
Just like her heartbeat.

It was in the third year after she came to stay with him that he realized he should somehow recognize the day with her: celebrate it, even if it was for the purely selfish reason that he wanted to make her smile.

Prairie looked nervous when he led her up the stairs, but her expression softened gently when the scent of hot potatoes reached her nose.

“French fries?” she whispered, feeling for the countertop next to her.

“Yes, but no oysters this time.” Not for her, at least. There was a half dozen on the half shell waiting for him in the refrigerator.

And there it was, a flicker across her lips that she tried to immediately supress, though she failed miserably. The soft, sweet smile made her lips curve (and made the damn kitchen light up around her).

“Sit.”

Prairie nodded, smoothing her dress around her as he set the plates on the table. Just as he had on her twenty-first birthday, he took her hand and placed it over the condiments.

“The good stuff…” she finished, moving her hand to the plate of fries herself. She hummed happily to herself as she ate several fries in quick succession, all but ignoring him as he sat across from her. “Is it my birthday, Hap?”

He nodded, then remembered himself and spoke out loud. “Yes.”

Her eyes moved to the right, unfocused and so blue that they put the prairie sky to shame. “And how old am I?”   
  
“Twenty-four,” he said.  
  
Prairie nodded slowly, sighing as she turned to look at him.   
  
Through him.   
  
“Will I ever celebrate a birthday away from here, Hap?”  
  
He stopped breathing for a moment, his heartbeat ringing in his years. Hers was making her dress tremble, and Hap realized that she was not breathing either. Curious that their hearts would beat in time, almost like a duet...  
  
“No.”  
  
She nodded and turned her face away from him, though not quickly enough for him to miss a glimpse the tear that slid down her right cheek.

 

* * *

 


End file.
